


Speechless

by Chellacat



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Post-Endgame, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:15:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26340256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chellacat/pseuds/Chellacat
Summary: Fluff for  @cametobuyplums 2000 Plums Writing Challenge on TumblrPrompt: Je suis sans voix : I’m speechless
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis
Comments: 13
Kudos: 148





	Speechless

Nearly everyone had them, words scrawled somewhere on their bodies, the first words your soulmate would say to you. Bucky had spent his first life unmarked, something most people considered unlucky, he’d known when he left for war he probably wouldn’t come back, after all, there was no one waiting to hear his words and no one for him to say any to.

____________________________

Those first weeks free of hydra had bee a blur, but one moment stood out, stepping out a of hot shower and clearing the steam from the mirror he’d seen them, the edges of words curling around his shoulder. Angling in the reflection, he’d felt confused at first, not understanding where they came from, what they were, but then the knowledge rushed back in. Soul-words. Words that meant somewhere out in the world there was a girl waiting for him. It’s why he decided to head to Europe, that and the chance to chase down leads on Hydra, try to understand better what they’d done to him. He’d found the record buried in a bunker in Germany. August 15th 1989, they’d discovered the words when they took him out of cryo. After that they’d moved him to an American base. 

By the time he’d ended up in Wakanda, his mind restored, he’d felt a little more hopeful about the words, the tantalising promise of a future seemingly in his grasp. He’d never even had the chance to tell Steve about them, to share what they were, he knew he’d have got a kick outta the suggestive invitation tattooed on his skin in French.

Then Thanos came and war. The aftermath of the destruction the Titan wrought across the world was massive, but the survivors, victorious. Peter Quill had luckily been close enough to Stark to grab the man’s hand as the power of the stones flowed through him, shouting for others to do the same. A line of the world’s heroes holding each other, linked in an unbreakable chain before Thanos, channeling all that power as Stark wielded the glove and defeated him, turning him and his armies to dust. 

When Steve had come to him, told him what he’d planned to do, he knew that if he told him then, his friend would have stayed, wanting to make sure he met his soulmate, wasted time he should be spending with Peggy. So, he’d done the right thing, told Steve it was time for him to go back to his girl, live the life he’d been meant to have. 

Steve was staying with Stark now, life at the cabin was good for him, a good retirement and friends to visit and catch up with. The place is peaceful, tranquil. It’s why Bucky’s frowning so hard when he gets out of the truck. The sound of dance music is blaring loudly from the cabin. It’s meant to be a nice relaxing quiet Fourth of July, instead the area by the water is bustling with people, setting up tables between shouting and laughing. He can see the kid, Parker, chasing after a girl with curly hair. Morgan and Nathaniel, Cooper and Lila ducking about between the adults, playing some sorta game with water pistols and no one seeming at all concerned with the rising noise. He spots Steve, dozing on the porch, and takes determined steps inside the house to find the source of the music. He’s working himself up, ready to face Stark whom he’s certain must be behind it, but stops short when he reaches the kitchen. There’s a girl there, wearing shorts he’s sure should be illegal, hair swept up on her head and bandana tied around it. She’s singing at the top of her lungs, a mixing bowl in one arm and conducting some invisible orchestra with a spatula in her right hand. She’s gorgeous, looks like a pin up girl with her shirt tied under her curvaceous bust, her lips full and red, bright blue eyes flashing with merriment. When she spots him, she flashes a sunny smile before dancing over, looking him straight in the eye and singing the words he’s branded with, to him.

“Voulez vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?”

He stands frozen in shock, not at the question, but at the reality. He gapes like an idiot, mouth opening and closing in shock. 

“Hi! I’m Darcy.” She waves at him with the spatula, beginning to look concerned. “Hey, old timer, it’s just a song, what’s got your panties in a bunch?” He’s still unable to answer and she tells Friday to turn off the music, muttering that she’s gonna get Steve and he panics, reaching for her arm and finally croaks out a response.

“Je suis sans voix!” it takes him a moment to realise he’s replied in French, but it seems he doesn’t need to translate, she looks as shocked as he felt. Her mouth making a pretty oh of surprise and the bowl in her arm drops to the tile with a clatter. For a blissful second there’s silence before she gets her voice working and starts chattering nineteen to the dozen. 

“You’re speechless? Fuck me my dude, how the hell do you think I feel? Oh my god, Janie is not going to believe this! And Steve! Oh he is going to love this, do you know he talks about you all the time? Like, the guy never shuts up about you, I feel like I know you with all the stories he’s told me and he kept insisting I’d like you no matter how any times I told him I still had a mark and…. Hey, hey, earth to Barnes! Keep up soldier, we gotta go tell everyone!”

“Jesus Christ Doll, you got a mouth on you!”

“Ha! Took you long enough. I thought I’d scared you permanently mute.”

“Something tells me that wouldn’t have been a problem the way you can talk for two.” He tells her with a cheeky smile.

“I thought you were meant to be the smooth one Barnes.” She parries back sharply, eyes twinkling.

“S’not like I have to be anymore though, is it?”

“Oh! Implying you won’t need it with me?” she arches a brow, placing one had on her hip and he’s brought up short again as he notices how long her legs look in the tiny shorts.

“Now, Doll, I didn’t mean it like that… Just meant the days of me trying to charm a pretty dame are over. Why would I need to, when the prettiest gal I ever met is my soulmate?”

“Aha, now that was smooth. A + right there.”

He steps closer and finds that, although she’s larger in life in personality, she’s a tiny little thing physically. She barely comes up to his shoulder in her bare feet. Even with the height difference, she manages to look down her nose a little at him before stepping into his space and tugging down her top so he can see the words he’d said to her in neat copperplate, scrawled over her collar bone. It’s unmistakably his own hand. When he reaches out to touch it, she allows it with a small smile. Her skin is silky sooth under his touch, and she shivers as he traces the words, finally a little speechless herself.

“I don’t think we were properly introduced earlier,” he states, pulling her top back into place. “I’m James Barnes, but my friends call me Bucky.”

“Darcy Lewis, no fancy nickname”

“I really glad to finally meet you Darcy.”

He takes her hand in his, squeezing it gently, when she mirrors the gesture, it’s like something clicking into place.

“So, “ she asks after a moment, “who do you want to tell first. _You’re_ best friend, or _my_ Father?”

“You’re dad’s here?”

“Sure he is, Friday, where’s dad?”

“Boss is currently in the workshop Miss Lewis, would you like me to ask him to come up?”

Darcy almost agrees but then notices her shiny new soulmate is doing his best impression of a goldfish again.

“Speechless, huh? I think I could get used to this…” Darcy quips. 

Bucky’ d froze again and wonders if everything she says to him from now on will end in his stunned silence, but he clears the thought from his mind and shakes his head. 

“Any chance we could skip both and go straight to your first suggestion doll?”

The loud whoop of laughter that echoes through the cabin startles Steve awake on the porch.

Looking through the window he sees his best friend smiling, really smiling, the way he had before the war and Steve knows from the way he holds Darcy’s hand, his great granddaughter’s hand, that everything had worked out just fine. 

**Author's Note:**

> Darcy's words to Bucky are her singing the french lyrics in the song "Lady Marmalade" which is playing at full volume. It translates, roughly as "Do you want to sleep with me tonight?" Bucky's response in french is of course to tell her he's speechless.
> 
> Yes, Tony Stark is Darcy's dad in this imagining.  
> Yes, Steve is her great-grandfather! His grand-daughter (who was the daughter of his son with Peggy) had a brief affair with Tony that resulted in Darcy.


End file.
